Xena: Warrior Princess-Season Three 02/10 (1 Viewer)

[Brandon Gantt]

Xena: Warrior Princess - Season Three

From: Anchor Bay Entertainment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 12, 2004

The Mythic Heroine Returns In A Deluxe Collector's Edition Nine-Disc Dvd Set!

Xena: Warrior Princess - Season Three
Featuring 22 Original Episodes Plus Hours of All-New Bonus Materials

Available February 10th from Anchor Bay Entertainment

TROY, MI - Among fans of Xena: Warrior Princess, Season Three of the series is regarded as a pinnacle in the six-year fantasy action epic about the legendary adventures of the beautiful and powerful heroine portrayed by Lucy Lawless. Anchor Bay Entertainment will debut the must-have Xena: Warrior Princess - Season Three DVD collection on February 10, 2004 featuring the complete season of 22 original episodes digitally re-mastered in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound, plus over nine hours of new supplemental materials exclusive to the DVD release, priced to own at $69.98 SRP.

The nine-disc boxed set of Xena: Warrior Princess - Season Three contains the exciting "complete and uncut" third season from the Emmy Award®-winning series, highlighted by the fan-favorite episodes Maternal Instincts, The Debt and Bitter Suite, as the third year of the cult-classic fantasy series rolls out to reveal the mystery of Gabrielle's unborn child.

The Season Three DVD release also includes more new bonus features than any of the previous Xena DVD collections from Anchor Bay, with over nine hours of action-packed extra programming, including:

*Vast library of never-before-seen footage including deleted, alternate and recently discovered scenes

*Cast and Crew Interviews including actors Lucy Lawless, Hudson Leick, Renee O'Connor and Ted Raimi; creator/executive producer Robert G. Tapert; executive producer/writers R.J. Stewart and Steven L. Sears; cinematographer Donald Duncan; set designer Robert Gillies; director Oley Sassone

*Video & Audio Commentaries from Lucy Lawless, Hudson Leick, Renee O'Connor, Ted Raimi, Steven L. Sears, R.J. Stewart and Robert Tapert and producer Elizabeth Friedman

*Special 30-minute Retrospective Featurette on the acclaimed episode "Sacrifice - Part I & II"

*Blooper Reel

*Photo Gallery - Official Xena photographers shooting on set and on location created this spectacular gallery of action and portrait shots of favorite Xena characters, beasts and demons

*CD-ROM features including:
Actor, Director and Writer Biographies
Series Trivia
Xena Chronicles: An interactive guidebook to all the characters of Xena with video clips, biographies, and photos.
Interactive Games: Test your mettle in Xena's world with these fun and challenging digital games.
Extensive Original Production Designs and Sketches
Director's Notes and Storyboards

In a time of ancient gods, ruthless warlords and capricious kings, a land in turmoil cried out for a hero. She was Xena, a mighty Warrior Princess forged in the heat of battle. Together with her sidekick Gabrielle in tow, Xena battles barbarians, overcomes oppressors and defeats demigods to protect the innocent and fight for peace in ancient Greece. Combining the series' trademark humor and dark mythological drama with Lucy Lawless's fiery and sexy persona, Xena: Warrior Princess completely redefined the role of the female action hero on television.

Xena: Warrior Princess began as a spin-off of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, premiering as a series in 1995. In its first season, the adventures of this formidable female fighter became the most popular new syndicated series on television, with ratings that exceeded even those of Baywatch. Nominated for six Emmy Awards, the series was honored for Outstanding Music Composition in 2000. During its original run of six seasons, Xena aired over 130 episodes, and with its stablemate Hercules, built a fiercely loyal cult following with legions of devoted fans that spawned nearly 1,500 websites, hundreds of individually licensed properties and conventions around the world.

Anchor Bay Entertainment is a leader in the field of home entertainment. The company offers an expansive selection of theatrical films from top film makers such as Roger Donaldson, John Woo, Werner Herzog and Wes Craven in addition to TV series hits such as Three's Company, The Highlander and the ever-popular Thomas & Friends collection as well as other popular children's titles like The Tales of Beatrix Potter and The Wacky World of Mother Goose. Anchor Bay is also home to chart-topping fitness titles, including the Crunch and For Dummies series. Anchor Bay Entertainment is a subsidiary of IDT Entertainment, a division of the IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT). Anchor Bay Entertainment and the IDT Corporation can be accessed via the web by visiting www.anchorbayentertainment.com and www.IDT.net.

Xena: Warrior Princess - Season Three
Street Date: February 10, 2004
Order Date: January 13, 2004
Catalog #: DV12617
UPC: 0-1313-12617-90
Run Time: 1056 Minutes
Rating: Not Rated
SRP: $69.98

 

[PhilipG]

Now, from an interview I read (don't have the link), season 3 was filmed in widescreen, but special effects were composed for the 4:3 area. This season, I believe will be 4:3 on DVD. No complaints there.

However, I am concerned that season 4+ will be in 4:3 on DVD (as they are in R2); those seasons were shot in w/s with sfx composed for w/s. Which makes w/s OAR in my book for season 4+. I hope Anchor Bay does the right thing...

Just wanted to raise awareness of this issue.

Meanwhile, I cannot wait for Bitter Suite!

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Anyone know if there's a Best-Buy exclusive on this season? There was with the first two seasons (and the first two seasons of Hercules) but the ad doesn't mention anything about it.

 

[Brandon Gantt]

I haven't seen anything about a BB exclusive, but it wouldn't surprize me since the previous 2 seasons had one.

 

[Will_B]

Dan, early word was that season three will only come in one flavor, with NO Best Buy exclusive this time.

 

[Brandon Gantt]

That's good news. I didn't think it was exactly fair for the sets to have special features exclusively through one store. Now it's possible to shop around for the cheapest prices, because all of them will be the same.

 

[Gord Lacey]

It's a loaded set as well. The extras are killing me (takes so long to get through them all) but fans will love it.

Gord

 

[Guido]

Best Buy Exclusive!?!?
This is weird - I know in the past they had their own discs and such (BB gets lots of exclusives) - but I just bought my S3 set and the final disc has a feature called "Best Buy Featurette" - any word on what this is? I haven't popped it in yet, but was interested in the fact that it was printed on the disc - is this truly a BB exclusive? Did anyone else see this? That would be a very very interesting exclusive to have, especially considering there was NO advertising anywhere for it (even on the box)!

 

[Brandon Gantt]

That's interesting news Guido. Season 2/disc 6 also had an exclusive Best Buy featurette. Best Buy's redesigned website is useless with info.

 

[PhilipG]

I didn't buy from BB, and don't see this text written on any of the discs. Are you talking about DVD disc 8 or the CD-ROM? If it's on the DVD, I wonder if the BB featurette is still there, but hidden from the menu...

Regardless, I'm thoroughly enjoying re-watching season 3 on DVD - the season where the show really hits its stride. The video and sound quality are both improved, and the extras seem better this time too, with every episode having 8-minute "interview" featurettes which are really interesting, in addition to the usual video/audio commentaries on selected eps.

 

[Gord Lacey]

I'm going to post my review of the set later today or tomorrow, but I thought the special features on the last disc had extremely low production value. The alternate takes from the two Sacrifice episodes had insanely low audio, and the retrospective was a joke compared to the other interviews for the episodes (I did better work in college). And what was with tacking a tribute to Kevin Smith on the end of that?! He deserves a lot more than 7 minutes on the end of a look at 2 episodes. I don't think I've ever been more pissed off at a special feature than I am with that piece of crap retrospective. I'm not even a huge Xena fan!

I also really didn't need to see closeups of the DVD producer asking questions.

Gord!

 

[Will_B]

I apologize to anyone who went with what I said about the early word being "no Best Buy exclusive" on this one. There indeed is extra interview material only on the Best Buy version. Probably not a biggie, but, it remains exclusive.

Highlander season three also has extra Best Buy material too (and its even more expensive).

 

[Brandon Gantt]

Does the BB exclusive have any different markings on the packaging?

 

[Will_B]

The usual banner across the top of the cover art.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

The DVD of the finale had an interview with XENA herself who stated that she was upset it was 4:3 because they switched to widescreen during season 4.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Here's hoping all further seasons all further seasons are released wide. Lucy Lawless has complained about this in the past, and she likely has some pull, so the chances aren't bad.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

I have to admit that the biggest disappoint for me on this disc is presented in a cropped 4:3 pan and scan format. This episode, and all episodes starting with episode 3 of Season 3, were originally filmed in a 1 to 1.85 widescreen format. This would have presented a unique opportunity to show the fans the proper aspect ratio. Lucy Lawless herself mentions in the commentary that she was disappointed the format for the DVD wasn't in a 'cinematic format' during the dance sequences in one of the temples.

The picture itself relies heavily on cloudy filters, giving the entire episode a dreamlike quality, which was intentional. Unless one knows this, the picture can come across very soft and blurry at times. Rob Tapert mentions, in the commentary, that the contrast seems overly pumped. The onscreen titles over the second half of the finale have been thankfully removed (they were present when the episode was broken into two parts for the original on air sequence.)

www.dvdfile.com

 

[Brandon Gantt]

I believe the special effects for season 3 were composed for 4:3 display, which is why this season isn't in widescreen on DVD. However, starting with season 4 the effects were rendered in WS. So the next set should be in a wide ratio.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Has anybody else had a problem with the audio for the episode "Been There, Done That"? On my system I get some occasional dialog "crackling sounds" from the center channel speaker.

Other than that, I've been pretty happy with the transfers provided for this season. And I've really been enjoying the little 8 minute "Interview" segments that are included with all the episodes. We needed something like this with the Star Trek TV episodes from Paramount!

By the way, about every third episode or so a "Video Commentary" extra is provided which depicts the producers, directors, and/or actors actually watching and discussing the show together. It's worth noting that they're viewing the episodes on a fully utilized 16:9 display! While I'm happy with the provided transfers, I would have been ecstatic if they had been produced in 1.78:1 widescreen with anamorphic enhancement so that we could see the episodes the same way!


Let's hope this will be the case.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

Anchor Bay's been fully remastering these, right? That would lead me to believe that someone involved with the show might mention not to go for 4:3...